Correct the compatibility description

[eustomaqua]

As people noticed (https://github.com/feedzai/fairgbm/issues/45), fairgbm is not supported on macOS. Besides, I tested fairgbm on Cent OS and RHEL8 systems, and it didn't work as well. So I don't think the statement---and I quote, "Note Compatibility is only maintained with Linux OS."---is correct, because the only Linux where I know it works is Ubuntu, although so many other Linux systems out there and I didn't test them all. Here I attached the errors for your information.

Error info

Running fairgbm on RHEL8 (Linux)

>>> import fairgbm
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "~/miniconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.8/site-packages/fairgbm/__init__.py", line 8, in <module>
    from .basic import Booster, Dataset, register_logger
  File "~/miniconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.8/site-packages/fairgbm/basic.py", line 95, in <module>
    _LIB = _load_lib()
  File "~/miniconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.8/site-packages/fairgbm/basic.py", line 86, in _load_lib
    lib = ctypes.cdll.LoadLibrary(lib_path[0])
  File "~/miniconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.8/ctypes/__init__.py", line 451, in LoadLibrary
    return self._dlltype(name)
  File "~/miniconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.8/ctypes/__init__.py", line 373, in __init__
    self._handle = _dlopen(self._name, mode)
OSError: /lib64/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.29' not found (required by ~/miniconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.8/site-packages/fairgbm/lib_lightgbm.so)
>>>

Running fairgbm on CentOS 7 (Linux)

>>> import fairgbm
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "~/Software/anaconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.6/site-packages/fairgbm/__init__.py", line 8, in <module>
    from .basic import Booster, Dataset, register_logger
  File "~/Software/anaconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.6/site-packages/fairgbm/basic.py", line 95, in <module>
    _LIB = _load_lib()
  File "~/Software/anaconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.6/site-packages/fairgbm/basic.py", line 86, in _load_lib
    lib = ctypes.cdll.LoadLibrary(lib_path[0])
  File "~/Software/anaconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.6/ctypes/__init__.py", line 426, in LoadLibrary
    return self._dlltype(name)
  File "~/Software/anaconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.6/ctypes/__init__.py", line 348, in __init__
    self._handle = _dlopen(self._name, mode)
OSError: /lib64/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.27' not found (required by ~/Software/anaconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.6/site-packages/fairgbm/lib_lightgbm.so)
>>> 

Extra

Running fairgbm on MacOS (Unix)

>>> import lightgbm
>>> import fairgbm
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "~/Software/miniconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.8/site-packages/fairgbm/__init__.py", line 8, in <module>
    from .basic import Booster, Dataset, register_logger
  File "~/Software/miniconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.8/site-packages/fairgbm/basic.py", line 95, in <module>
    _LIB = _load_lib()
  File "~/Software/miniconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.8/site-packages/fairgbm/basic.py", line 86, in _load_lib
    lib = ctypes.cdll.LoadLibrary(lib_path[0])
  File "~/Software/miniconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.8/ctypes/__init__.py", line 451, in LoadLibrary
    return self._dlltype(name)
  File "~/Software/miniconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.8/ctypes/__init__.py", line 373, in __init__
    self._handle = _dlopen(self._name, mode)
OSError: dlopen(~/Software/miniconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.8/site-packages/fairgbm/lib_lightgbm.so, 0x0006): tried: '~/Software/miniconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.8/site-packages/fairgbm/lib_lightgbm.so' (not a mach-o file), '/System/Volumes/Preboot/Cryptexes/OS/~/Software/miniconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.8/site-packages/fairgbm/lib_lightgbm.so' (no such file), '~/Software/miniconda3/envs/ensem/lib/python3.8/site-packages/fairgbm/lib_lightgbm.so' (not a mach-o file)

[eustomaqua]

Sorry, I suddenly realise that it might work on Cent OS and RHEL8, wait a moment and I will update later

------------UPDATE-------------

Seems like it might be able to be solved somehow, but currently I don't know how to do that without the root access. Here is what I did according to stackoverflow:

$ wget -4c https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/glibc/glibc-2.29.tar.gz
$ tar -zxvf glibc-2.29.tar.gz  # change to glibc-2.27.tar.gz on CentOS
$ cd glibc-2.29
$ mkdir build_dir
$ cd build_dir
$ ../configure --prefix=~/Software/glibc
$ make
$ make install

The installation works on RHEL8 (but didn't work on CentOS because

configure: error: 
*** These critical programs are missing or too old: compiler

Even though glibc is installed on RHEL8, it still reports the same error when running fairgbm, as described above. I think running fairgbm might work if I do it this way

sudo ../configure --prefix=/opt/glibc
sudo make
sudo make install

But unfortunately I don't have the root access. Therefore the only way for me would be modifying the source code of fairgbm. Then I got stuck with modifying "lib_lightgbm.so", I don't know how to do that...

[joaoleveiga]

glibc is an OS dependent library. I recommend avoiding a manual install as it will most likely break some underlying OS features.

Looking at the base centos:7 image it looks like it ships with glibc-2.17 which will definitely not work:

[root@40cae3eede5e /]# cat /etc/redhat-release
CentOS Linux release 7.9.2009 (AltArch)
[root@40cae3eede5e /]# ldd --version
ldd (GNU libc) 2.17
Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

@eustomaqua can you please provide more context on how you are trying to build this image or install FairGBM? E.g., by sharing a Dockerfile?

Thanks!

[eustomaqua]

@joaoleveiga Sorry for the late response, I was trying to use docker (centos:7 and centos:8) and reproduce the error but failed to pull these images.

The bugs I reported at the beginning were happening on the Linux servers (one is Cent OS 7, and the other is RHEL8), not a docker image. I mentioned docker because this is the only way I can successfully use fairgbm, by using a docker image of a Ubuntu system, which is also the reason I think the sentence "works for linux systems" in the document is incorrect.

As for the docker image where I can successfully use fairgbm, I shared it already here and there. This is a purely Ubuntu:latest image, with no extra software or package installed. After creating an image using the Dockerfile, I enter the container to manually install miniconda3 and fairgbm. And that was how I made it work for me. I didn't use the official docker image because the file is too large.

Let me know please if you need any other information. Thanks again for your help!

[AndreFCruz]

Thanks for the PR!

As far as I can tell, the docker image available here corresponding to this docker file works fine as an alternative to use fairgbm without Ubuntu.

[eustomaqua]

My intention is mainly to point out that the description is not precise, and secondly to give a Dockerfile that provides minimal dependency, which is the operating system---because in Ubuntu, people can simply use "pip install fairgbm" and no need to use a much larger docker image. Besides, I gave the initial Dockerfile here https://github.com/feedzai/fairgbm/issues/45#issuecomment-1729702512 for the available one